Gibson gets around to the P. Green LP

singemonkey

And for only R100,000, it could be yours.

http://www2.gibson.com/Products/Electric-Guitars/Les-Paul/Gibson-Custom/Collectors-Choice-1-1959-Les-Paul-Standard.aspx

P. Green obviously didn't want to be part of this (I hear he's superstitious about that guitar (also everything else. He is mad, after all)) so it's got Gary Moore's name on the distressed version, and the owner of the guitar's name on the pristeen version.

Nice guitar. But, as discussed before, this value is a bit manufactured. You could, after all, get a VOS '59 LP with the right top, get a hard-core expert to do the refinishing and distressing, flip the pickup magnet in the neck, and get some aged reflector knobs, and it would come in way cheaper. So I guess you're paying because it's the "official" "Gary Moore," or some dude no one's ever heard of (but really the Peter Green...) Les Paul.

AlanRatcliffe

If you want a pre-modded and pre-vetted Greenie LP, Google a guy called Peter Corsa and save yourself $90K-odd. Of course, it won't have the same collector's value though...

singemonkey

Yeah. People love his Greened LPs. But I really don't like the look of those LP "faded"s. Ugly LPs IMO. If he refinished them as well, it'd be a better story. I also wonder whether they're the superior LPs he says they are, or whether the lower price increases his profit margin - bit of unconscious bias there, I'd imagine.

Whatever the case, the end results are great sounding LPs. I'm inclined to believe that that has a lot to do with his pickups (also sold seperately ? )

AlanRatcliffe

He will refinish on request. A friend of mine in the US does the finishing for him (a real craftsman - can do an LP top so thin it takes only a single shot glass of nitro). The fadeds got a lot of rave reviews from all over (short tenon or no) and the pickups are similarly highly regarded.

singemonkey

Alan Ratcliffe wrote He will refinish on request. A friend of mine in the US does the finishing for him (a real craftsman - can do an LP top so thin it takes only a single shot glass of nitro). The fadeds got a lot of rave reviews from all over (short tenon or no) and the pickups are similarly highly regarded.

Ok. I was just being suspicious ?

That's a great advert for his refinishing.

Reinhard

I flipped the magnet in my 59RI neck pup, instant OOP Greenie tone.

singemonkey

Reinhard wrote I flipped the magnet in my 59RI neck pup, instant OOP Greenie tone.

Did it cost an extra $2,000 to flip the magnet? ?

Reinhard

Only a few F bombs lol
The VOS version of that guitar is a lot less for the record. Personally, I'd get a nice lemonburst, buy some reflectors, customs pups, grovers etc and make my own Greenie LP.

singemonkey

That's what I'm sayin' ?

But it's a confusing issue, this "having" your hero's guitar. Because although that guitar faded at quite a pace (I'm picturing it sitting on a stand in Pete's flat right where the sun comes through the window), it still had some colour when he was done with it - in the odd rare colour photo, or that incredible Playboy video at Hef's place doing Rattlesnake Shake (if you haven't seen it, stop reading now and hit youtube).

So, yeah, it looks like that now. But when Pete banged out, Please stop messin' around, and Black Magic Woman, it didn't.

There's a thread going on on the Tokai forum recently about fading your LP. Some of these guys reckon they've been quite successful. That guy who often crops up on Stewmac uncatalogued, Erick something, has a really fun flickrstream for guitar geeks - the stuff that lands on his bench... I asked him if the Gibson reissues would fade. He said he doubted it. And he knows Gibsons. Believe me. Presumably the finish is a lot more stable than some of the batches they used in the '50s.

But what if you stuck the thing on a sunbed for a month? I'm just sayin' ?

Reinhard

I have seen the Rattlesnake shake vid, very cool!

My 99 faded from cherry to teaburst. All the red is out of the back as well. You can see a spot or two where the original colour was below the headstock where the stand was. I believe all the fading was from being on display under fluorescent lights.

Crappy pic to show how the red faded from the top